All posts for the month July, 2012

I got this idea while flaming around Seward co-op looking for ideas. I must have had a hankering for pizza and when I saw the huge mushroom caps that Lisa likes to use for ‘meaty’ textures, I got the idea to use them as a base for pizza

I had my doubts about this concoction, but it worked out really well. It is a strong mushroom flavor, but it still tastes like pizza.

Recipe
3 Large mushroom caps (the ones that run 3-6 inches in diameter)
1/3 cup of pasta sauce
1/3 to 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese
1 medium clove of garlic
Half a yellow onion
Half a green or red pepper

Lisa does not like mushrooms al dente so I stuck them in the oven at 200 degrees to warm up while I did the rest of the prep. Mince the garlic and Dice the mushrooms and onions ands sweat them for five minutes on loan heat with some salt and olive oil. Heat the sauce to a simmer. Grate the cheese. Pull out the mushrooms caps and raise the oven heat to 500, add 1/3 of the sauce to the inside of each cap, split the cheese among the three caps and then add the vegetables. Place them back into the oven and let them cook until the cheese is melted and starting to brown (I think the broiler would work equally well). Plate and serve

With trying to eat more vegetarian I acknowledge that I need to eat more salad despite it not being my favorite course of the meal. I am doing better, but I am trying to find ways to expand to dress it up. Any salad dressings that I post here probably won’t be mind blowing, but I am trying to post track my progress.

Mince the garlic and stir it into the oil with the pepper. Fold basil oregano up into a tube and then use kitchen shears over the oil and snipe the tube into fine strips over the oil. Stir again to mix and serve.

I called this dish moup because last weekend, my daughter misheard me say that we were having soup for dinner and wanted to know what the heck moup was. She went on to say that she wouldn’t actually want to eat anything called moup anything. So I do her I was going to create a dish that she would love and call it moup just to show her up.

I was already thinking of a vegetarian gumbo recipe and she is a fan of gumbo, so I just needed a little something to push it over the top. I have been trying to work out dishes that freeze well or transport well in small portions for me to take to work for lunch. I was thinking about a kind of gumbo pot pie, but when I saw that shepherd’s pie often used mashed potatoes instead of dough crust I knew I had my dish because Wynn is maniacal about mashed potatoes.

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

1 large red pepper

1 large green pepper

2 cloves of garlic

1 cup of frozen corn

1 cup of sliced shitake mushrooms

1 cup of sliced okra

1/2 cup of flour

1/2 cup of oil

2 tsp. of cumin

1 tsp. of chili powder

1/2 tsp. of cayenne pepper

1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley

1/4 cup of chopped frozen cilantro

2 cups of vegetable stock

Crust

4 medium russet potatos

1 cup of shredded chedar cheese

Build a dark red rue with the oil and flour. I use the Alton Brown method. While the rue is going, start to boil the potatoes. Dice the vegetables down to the same size. Grind the spices and finely chop the herbs. Once the rue is done toss in the vegetables, spices and herbs until mixed. Then stir in the stock and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Mash the potatoes and add cheese. Ladle the gumbo into chili bowls, then spread the mashed potatoes on top carefully to keep them separate. Create a smooth seal on top then serve or let cool and refrigerate.

Another dish that I have never made before. I find that the tastes of pancake, waffle and French toast are pretty close to each other so I stepped slightly off the beaten path with this recipe, discarding the traditional cinnamon and vanilla for lemon extract and all spice